On this week’s podcast… WE’RE LOVING ENGEL INSTEAD: The irreplaceable Scott Walker. AMERICAN NIGHTMARE: Is Jordan Peele’s latest horror movie ‘Us’ a worthy successor to ‘Get Out’? VERY METAL: Is the Netflix adaptation of Mötley Crüe’s infamous ‘The Dirt’ worth a watch even if you can’t stand their music? And does it whitewash the depravity? NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN: New albums from Jenny ‘Rilo Kiley’ Lewis and Andrew ‘you might not know him’ Bird. Joining us to rummage through the bran tub of pop ...
Mar 30, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 146
On our latest pop culture patterfest, Q Magazine editor TED KESSLER and comedy writer DAN MAIER of Harry Hill fame join Siân and Andrew to sift through the week’s most interesting stuff. The great EDWYN COLLINS confronts age and mortality through the medium of sounding as much like Iggy Pop as possible on new album ‘Badbea’. Is ‘Feud’ and ‘Glee’ producer Ryan Murphy’s dramatisation of the New York drag ball scene POSE worth your eyeball time? Ted gives us a bumper crate of new release recommenda...
Mar 23, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 145
It’s a legend-heavy podcast this week as we welcome TERRY HALL of The Specials to talk about the rebirth of every rude boy and girl’s favourite band – and music press and TV comedy giant DAVID QUANTICK of The Day Today and Veep fame. On the agenda: Is Ricky Gervais’s new Netflix comedy AFTER LIFE brave, bold, funny… or just obnoxious egotism? And do we prefer DERRY GIRLS, TV’s premier all-girl comedy based on religious sectarianism, the threat of terrorism and Take That? Plus we get on the analy...
Mar 16, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 144
This week, the immensely sad death by suicide of KEITH FLINT, The Prodigy’s magnificent monster of the id. We salute a self-made superstar and explore what made him so loved across the spectrum from ravers to rockers and beyond. Plus: CAPTAIN MARVEL – does Brie Larsen’s super-debut as Earth’s Mightiest Hero live up to its billing? And whose make-up works best, de-aged Samuel L “Nick Fury” Jackson or green-faced Ben “Skrull leader” Mendelsohn? FLEABAG – the worst-behaved woman in London is back f...
Mar 09, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 143
This week we scale the north face of Chatmandu with pop journo HANNAH VERDIER and pop-obsessed illustrator NADIA SHIREEN, both veterans of the sainted Smash Hits Academy of Excellence. What does our panel make of the return of ALAN PARTRIDGE, and will it make Andrew dial down his Piers Morganisms on the Bigmouth settee? Also: Can SLEAFORD MODS come to terms with the Big Time i.e. having a house with more than one bedroom? We delve into new album ‘Eton Alive’. And we missed the groundbreaking “wo...
Mar 02, 2019•57 min•Ep. 142
This week we’re joined by Quietus co-founder JOHN DORAN and film writer LINDA MARRIC to pan for more pop culture gold among the gravel and bottle tops. RUSSIAN DOLL on Netflix: what’s the metaphysical subtext of TV’s funniest drinking, drugging and dying comedy? SHAUN RYDER’S LYRICS are finally collected in book form – is he the WB Yeats of Madchester as Tony Wilson claimed all those years ago? Who does Linda fancy for an Oscar? And loads of music too. Produced and presented by Andrew Harrison a...
Feb 23, 2019•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 141
On this week’s podcast, ALAAARM! We talk over the stunning re-Boot of sub-sea nerve-wrangler DAS BOOT with our guests, Quietus co-founder LUKE TURNER (left) and pop culture journo MARK HOOPER (right). Does the story of a different U-boat match up to the original and where does it fit into Brexit Britain’s TV schedule? Plus: Luke Turner talks about his remarkable book ‘Out Of The Woods’, where self-doubt, masculinity, sexuality, Suede and Throbbing Gristle come together in the mysterious depths o...
Feb 16, 2019•58 min•Ep. 140
On this week’s high-end pop culture hootenanny, we’re joined by music business journo EAMONN FORDE – who fills us in on the cautionary tale that is his new book ‘The Final Days Of EMI: Selling The Pig’ – plus The Times’ rock and pop critic WILL HODGKINSON. On the agenda: Jake Gyllenhaal in art scene gorefest ‘Velvet Buzzsaw‘, the return of Paddy MacAloon’s orchestral masterpiece ‘I Trawl The Megahertz’, new tunes from our guests, and loads more. Listen up or feel like you’re outside the Velvet R...
Feb 09, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 139
It’s a rather more stylish Bigmouth than usual as GQ magazine editor DYLAN JONES joins us for this week’s pop culture dégustation along with SOPHIE HARRIS of Mojo, Time Out and… yoga? On the menu this week: Can HBO/BBC4 documentary ‘The Defiant Ones’ make compelling drama from the parallel rise of Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine? Psychedelic backwoodsmen Mercury Rev take on Bobbie Gentry’s country-soul classic ‘The Delta Sweete’ with an army of five-star female vocalists. And weren’t Buzzcocks just FANT...
Feb 02, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 138
“It’s not fraud, it’s just false advertising!” Special guests and major influencers ALEXIS PETRIDIS of The Guardian and LUCY O’BRIEN, author of ‘Madonna: Like An Icon’, join regulars Siân and Andrew on a microlite to misery as we gaze in disbelief at not one but BOTH Fyre Festival documentaries. What were the best bits, what did we learn about “millennials” and is there enough Evian in the world to douse this Bonfire Of The Inanities? Hey, dig our on-brand orange tile… PLUS It’s la recherche de ...
Jan 26, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 137
Have Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly brought back the real Laurel & Hardy, and how many hankies should you take to ‘Stan & Ollie’? Why is Trevor Horn reinventing the 80s if they weren’t broken in the first place? And former Beta Band man Steve Mason says his fourth album ‘About The Light’ is his first proper record – is he right? Seasoned journos Ian Harrison of Mojo magazine and Michael Hogan of the Guardian and Telegraph join Siân and Andrew to push the piano of pop culture up the meta...
Jan 19, 2019•55 min•Ep. 136
What do the letters H.O.M.E. mean to you? We’re joined in Conversation Corner by guests Ralph Moore of dance bible Mixmag and Anthony Teasdale – terrace style guru and Balearic soothsayer – to discuss the movie that made everyone’s Christmas, ‘Bros: After The Screaming Stops’. Plus: can we mourn HMV if we didn’t spend enough money there? New Order’s fluorescent classic ‘Technique’ is a whole 30 years old. And an unusually ravey selection of tunes from our guests. Produced and presented by Andrew...
Jan 12, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 135
In our second End of Year special, guests MIRANDA SAWYER and EAMONN FORDE tell us their favourite records, telly, films and other stuff of 2018 – and Andrew gets to make his choices too. Who liked lesbionic romantic disaster SALLY4EVER? What did the panel make of the new DOCTOR WHO? And who was the most appalling monster on TV? Plus music from Christine & The Queens, Shame, Suede, Half Man Half Biscuit and Dave – just Dave. It’s all you need for the long dark winter evenings. Produced and pr...
Dec 22, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 134
The 1975! The Lemon Twigs! Anna Calvi! That fantastic Jeremy Thorpe dramatisation from the BBC! And some films, telly and music you might not have heard of too! It’s the first of our ‘Favourites of 2018’ shows. MICHAEL HANN of The Guardian and FT and ANDREW MUELLER (once Melody Maker, now Monocle and you can’t say that about everyone) join Andrew and Siân to choose the best of the year. Plus: how do you persuade uptight business-y mags like The Economist and The Spectator to run stories on Cold ...
Dec 15, 2018•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 133
This week on the pop culture podcast for today’s prancing popinjay: Bassist to the gentry, raconteur and stand-up comic GUY PRATT tells us about life playing with Pink Floyd, Madonna, Robert Palmer and – for about a week – The Smiths. And music journo and author MARTIN ASTON helps us dissect new Netflix ‘Polish noir’ drama 1983 and the surprisingly addictive new jazz album from BRYAN FERRY. (Guy is the soul of tact here – Bryan is his mate of old). Support BIGMOUTH and get a little extra from th...
Dec 08, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 132
They wouldn't let it lie. Spam! Pants! Soil! Is the all-new Vic n Bob's Big Night Out all we've been expecting from a big night in? The Kominsky Method on Netflix stars Mr Catherine Zeta Jones, Michael Douglas, as ageing acting coach Sandy Kominsky - we ponder this dark, comedic "later life" series. Plus with new reissues of the three This Mortal Coil albums on 4AD, we listen to Ivo Watts-Russell's ethereal studio collective and debate whether it still packs a punch 27+ years on. And goodbye Nic...
Dec 01, 2018•56 min•Ep. 131
Dim the lights! It's the pop culture podcast for the louche lounge dweller. Does the Coen Brother's anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs cast a new light on the narrative of the Wild West and the lonesome cowboy? And did anyone recognise Tom Waits? We talk about the Suede documentary The Insatiable Ones - chasing the dragon or gettin' off that thar horse? And yes, it's Brett vs Damon week as we muse upon The Good, The Bad and the Queen, Damon Albarn's supergroup with new Brexit Britain album M...
Nov 24, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 130
This week on the pop culture podcast for the sophisticated procrastinator: The KATE BUSH reissues are out. How do her leotard years stand up at nearly 40 years’ remove? We mark the ascension of Marvel mastermind Smilin’ STAN LEE to the Astral Plane with guest Dorian Lynskey from the Remainiacs podcast. HAPPY MONDAYS’ infamous second album ‘Bummed’ is 30 years old. And is Netflix’s blood-sodden Robert the Bruce drama OUTLAW KING fit for purpose as the new Braveheart? Writer and rock’n’roll muso K...
Nov 17, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 129
Is Netflix’s new rockumentary series Remastered up to BBC4 music doc standard? We look for things we don’t know in their episodes on JOHNNY CASH’s relationship with Richard Nixon and the attempted murder of BOB MARLEY. The producers of House Of Cards stage a realistic Mars shot in THE FIRST – but is the myth-making too earnest? And Andrew gets all excited about a lost gem of comic books from the late 2000AD artist CARLOS EZQUERRA, a spaghetti western for kids called El Mestizo. Special guests JU...
Nov 10, 2018•57 min•Ep. 128
THE PRODIGY: the electronic AC/DC who don’t ever need to change because they got it right 25 years ago, or relics of rave? Is THE CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA a fitting reboot to the 90s Saturday morning cult witchfest… is it a bit gother-than-thou… and does it still have a talking cat? And does C4’s euro-spy effort BERLIN STATION have das richtige Zeug for modern espionage drama? Special guests ANTHONY TEASDALE of Umbrella magazine and former editor of The Face RICHARD BENSON join Siân and An...
Nov 03, 2018•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 127
This week we get all textual with NEIL TENNANT’S new book ‘100 Lyrics and a Poem’ – is he the pop TS Eliot or the Rave Larkin? – and gaze aghast at Julia Davis’s utterly filthy new comedy ‘SALLY4EVER’ in which a self-freeing and self-actualising lesbian affair turns into a disaster all round. Plus ROBYN’s new record of heartbreak on the dancefloor, Bobby Gillespie takes on The Man by refusing to dance with Michael Portillo on the BBC’s ‘This Week’… and much more. ANDY MILLER of the brilliant boo...
Oct 27, 2018•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 126
Twitter photomontage artist Cold War Steve: just another Banksy or the Fly-Tip Warhol of Brexit Britain? Neneh Cherry returns with the proper grown-up pop of ‘Broken Politics’ and St Vincent redoes her last album for solo piano as ‘Masseducation’ – does it work? And can our panel stomach the splattery historical horror of ‘Apostle’, the new Netflix movie from Gareth “The Raid” Evans. Britain’s best beer writer Pete Brown joins Andrew and Siân for an hour of quality pop culture wittering. Support...
Oct 20, 2018•1 hr•Ep. 125
‘DOCTOR WHO’ returns with its biggest series debut in a decade, but what are the pundits missing about this new incarnation of the sci-fi institution? Will JOHN GRANT’s arch, observational electropop – showcased on new album ‘Love Is Magic’ – hit the spot with our panel? And we load up on collard greens and grits to explore PRIMAL SCREAM’s post-‘Screamadelica’ journey into fatback gumbo chicken-scratch soul as their lost Memphis tapes reappear after 20 years. Guests HANNAH VERDIER of The Guardia...
Oct 13, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 124
The massive David Bowie box set project reaches the 1980s. Will the highs – Let’s Dance, Absolute Beginners, Loving The Alien – win out over the lows and is it strictly kosher to reinvent unloved albums to sound better after the artist’s death? Plus our guests Mark “Hole & Corner Magazine” Hooper and actor and director Caroline Catz talk about the Cat Power album, their emergency go-to movies for a night when there’s nothing on TV, and Caroline’s new film documentary Delia Derbyshire: The My...
Oct 06, 2018•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 123
On this week’s pop culture palaver-fest, ex-NME and ZTT mouth-on-a-stick PAUL MORLEY joins Siân and Bigmouth regular Michael Moran to ponder the week’s key broadcasts and releases. Is serial killer drama Killing Eve – written by Phoebe “Fleabag” Waller-Bridge – the electrifying experience everyone says it is? How about Netflix psychonautical caper Maniac? Is the new Chic album any good? And which show does Michael think is “like watching a cultural reference mood board”? All this and more on the...
Sep 29, 2018•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 122
It’s Gender Non-Conformist Week on the smart pop culture podcast as guests Miranda Sawyer and author and pop journo Lucy O’Brien discuss CHRIS (the artist formerly known as Christine & The Queens), the magnificent return of pop polymorphs SUEDE, Lucy’s MADONNA biography ‘Like An Icon’ and loads more. Listen in as Siân cheers them on and Andrew has his appalling retrograde cis-male attitudes shaken to their very core. Support BIGMOUTH and get a little extra from the podcast every week – buy u...
Sep 22, 2018•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 121
Hands in the air and lasers akimbo: ORBITAL brothers Paul and Philip Hartnoll materialise in the Bigmouth bunker to talk about new album ‘Monsters Exist’ and their 30 years at the forefront of raving. What’s it like working with Prof Stephen Hawking and Dr Brian Cox? How did the self-confessed “Mitchell Brothers of techno” bury the hatchet and start working together again? What are their favourite current tunes and classic electronic records? And what telly and box sets are they hammering? Andre...
Sep 15, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 120
On this week’s show, RUDE BOY CINEMA: does Idris Elba’s Yardie capture the truth about Jamaican gangsters without romanticising it? LAVENDER ON THE MOVE: we try and fail to discuss the Keeley Hawes/Robb Stark from GoT political potboiler BODYGUARD without spoilers. Should close protection officer David Budd stop clenching his jaw and enjoy his job a bit more? And the not-at-all difficult second album from West London slow-groovers JUNGLE. Our guests this week: MATT ALLEN of Q, Mojo and sports bo...
Sep 08, 2018•57 min•Ep. 119
LURING DISCO DOLLIES TO A LIFE OF VICE: This week we delve into Soft Cell’s enormous retrospective box set ‘Keychains And Snowstorms’ in the company of Times and GQ writer SIMON MILLS (who has some VERY interesting revelations about Marc’n’Dave from the good old days) and doyenne of the TV reviews JULIA RAESIDE of The Guardian. Plus: Is Spike Lee’s BlacKKKlansman really the most important movie of the year? And why you really ought to be watching the Murdoch dynasty series-a-clef Succession on S...
Sep 01, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 118
ELF’N’SAFETY GONE MAD: Is Matt Groening’s sword-and-slapstick Netflix series Disenchantment up to par with Futurama and The Simpsons? Plus fractured r’n’b on the new album Blood Orange and a truly excellent new biopic of James Lavelle, The Man From Mo’Wax. Spoiler: it’s This Is Spinal Trip Hop and a bit more besides. Guests ANDREW MALE of Mojo and Sight & Sound and MICHAEL MORAN of The Mirror join Andrew Harrison for this week’s pop culture ponderfest. Keep BIGMOUTH going – buy us a pint on ...
Aug 25, 2018•51 min•Ep. 117
